Absalom, Absalom!

Absalom, Absalom! Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

The cultural and historical setting of the novel is the post-civil war Deep South.

The main character, which narrates most of the story, is Quentin Compson, a young man who is preparing to leave to study at Harvard. Quentin's future lies in the North, at Harvard University, but the story in which he becomes involved seems to bind him more firmly to his present in the defeated South, which he describes as purgatorial (from Purgatory= a level between Heaven and Hell where sinners wait to be forgiven for their crimes). The first chapter introduces us to an old lady, Miss Rosa Coldfield, who has given Quentin the task of telling her dramatic family history.

At the beginning of the chapter, on a hot September afternoon in 1909, Quentin is seated in the dark and stuffy atmosphere of Rosa Coldfield's office. She begins to tell the story. As she does, Quentin's thoughts wander as he contemplates first the old, withered lady, and then the events of which she speaks. He thinks of Colonel Sutpen, who arrived suddenly in 1833 with a band of black slaves and built a grand house and plantation on the edge of town. Sutpen called this estate 'Sutpen's Hundred'. He considers some of the basic facts of the Sutpen family history: Rosa Coldfield's sister, Ellen, was married to Sutpen. They had two children, who died after a rupture of some sort between father and children.

Rosa shares her memories of Sutpen, and of the circumstances that led to the wedding. Sutpen was not a religious man, which is unusual for this period in history. Rosa also mentions that there is some doubt about his past, and about how he came to be rich. The Coldfield family was not rich, but was considered a decent Methodist family.

Rosa remembers that Sutpen had held wild carriage races on the way to church, and that the scandal of this meant he had stopped attending services. It emerges at the end of the chapter that Ellen's daughter, Judith, had especially enjoyed these races. Sutpen took to drinking on the Sabbath, and Ellen's father began to regret his daughter's marriage.

The races continued to be held on Sutpen's grounds. Ellen makes the horrific discovery, one evening, that Sutpen is holding matches in their barn, in which he and his son, Henry, fight Negro slaves. What Ellen does not realize is that Sutpen allows their daughter to watch these bouts with one of the slave children.

Rosa mentions that, as her sister lay dying, she entrusted her with the protection of the Sutpen children. After her sister's death, she became engaged to marry Sutpen. This chapter does not go into the detail of the events leading up to the engagement.

As Rosa is talking, Quentin realizes that the story of Rosa's family is also the story of the South itself. After his visit, he begins to widen his search for information about the Sutpens. His father tells him that his grandfather, who seems to have had an important role in the government of the town, helped Sutpen establish himself in the town. These facts are inserted into the stream of consciousness, often interrupting between one section of Quentin's visit with Rosa and another, which can make it difficult for the reader to follow events.